1. RSS-PECT
How it can change your
(product’s) life
John Shaw
Director, Publishing Technologies
SAGE Publications, U.S.
! What is RSS?
! The History and the Hype …
! Who Uses It and What Does It Look Like?
! Business Models
! Future Business Models
! Resources and Links
What is RSS?
Vocabulary…
" XML (ĕks’ĕm-ĕl’) NOUN: A metalanguage
ĕks’ĕm- ĕl’)
written in SGML that allows one to
design a markup language, used to allow
for the easy interchange of documents on
the World Wide Web
" RSS (är’ĕs’ĕs) NOUN: A lightweight XML
r’ĕs’ĕs)
format designed for sharing headlines
and other web content
" ATOM (ăt’ m) NOUN: An XML-based document
m) XML-
format for the syndication of web
content such as weblogs and new
headlines
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2. What is RSS?
What RSS is NOT…
" RSS is not the answer to open access
" RSS is not a way to reduce the complexity of online
publishing
" RSS is not a way to reduce journal subscription costs
" RSS is not for technophobes
" RSS is not SPAM or junk mail … yet
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What is RSS?
What RSS IS …
" An incredibly popular tool being used by Fortune
500 companies
" A very quick and easy way to syndicate content
online
" A new way to push content alerts, corporate news,
and new product information
" A potential revenue stream in the coming years
" An answer to e-mail overload
e-
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The History and the Hype …
Background …
1997 – Microsoft created Channel Definition Format for the
Active Channel feature of IE 4.0
1997 – David Winer designed an XML-based format for
XML-
syndication of his Scripting News weblog
1999 – Dan Libby of Netscape created an XML-based format for
XML-
use with My Netscape Portal
2002 – David Winer created RSS 2.0 and renamed the format to
Really Simple Syndication
2003 – Aaron Swartz designed RSS 3.0
2003 – Atom specification developed
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3. The History and the Hype …
The Hype …
" July 9, 2004 – “Ingenta Introduces RSS Feeds”
" February 8, 2005 – “Ask Jeeves Acquires Bloglines”
Bloglines”
" June 17, 2005 – “Yahoo Search Launches Search Subscription
Beta”
" June 22, 2005 – “Elsevier Offers Personlized RSS Feeds”
" July 26, 2005 – “Yahoo Acquires Konfabulator”
Konfabulator”
" June 28, 2005 – “ SIRSI Launches Library User Interface”
" June 29, 2005 – “AOL Partners with Feedster for Personalized
Search”
" August 9, 2005 – “Google Adds RSS Feeds”
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Who Uses It and What Does it Look Like?
Sites with RSS …
" Disney " LexisNexus
" Ford " Elsevier
" BBC " NPG
" CNN " Ingenta
" CNET " Thompson
" Forbes " Factiva
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Who Uses It and What Does it Look Like?
How do you
find it on a site?
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4. Who Uses It and What Does it Look Like?
What Does Lightweight XML (RSS) Look Like?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<?xml encoding="ISO-8859-
- <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/"
xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/"
<title>Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin current issue</title>
<title>Personality issue</title>
<link>http://psp.sagepub.com</link>
<link>http://psp.sagepub.com</link>
<description>Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin RSS feed -- current issue</description>
<description>Personality issue</description>
<prism:issn>0146-1672</prism:issn>
prism:issn>0146-1672</prism:issn>
- <items>
- <rdf:Seq>
rdf:Seq>
<rdf:li rdf:resource="http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/31/10/1315?rss=1" /> </rdf:Seq>
rdf:resource="http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/31/10/1315?rss=1" </rdf:Seq>
</items>
- <title> <![CDATA[ Forgiveness and Its Associations With Prosocial Thinking, Feeling, and Doing Beyond the Relationship With the
Offender ]]>
</title>
<link>http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/31/10/1315?rss=1</link>
<link>http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/31/10/1315?rss=1</link>
- <description> <![CDATA[ <p><I>Past research has revealed that forgiveness promotes prosocial cognition, feeling, and behavior
forgiveness
toward the offender..</I></p> ]]>
</description>
<dc:creator>Karremans, J. C., Van Lange, P. A. M., Holland, R. W.</dc:creator>
dc:creator> Karremans, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2005-09-02</dc:date>
dc:date> 2005-09-02</dc:date>
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Who Uses It and What Does it Look Like?
What does
an RSS
feed look
like?
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Who Uses It and What Does it Look Like?
What does
an RSS feed
look like?
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5. Business Models
SAGE Business Model …
" Began RSS tests in June 2005
" Placed on six society journal titles – two medical
and four social science
" XML marker placed on homepage of sites
" RSS for current and recent table of contents
" No marketing or promotion to aggregators
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Business Models
RSS subscriptions on
SAGE journal titles –
Snapshot -
June 6, 2005
September 1, 2005
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Business Models
RSS link-throughs
from RSS feed to
journal site
Snapshot -
August 3, 2005
August 18, 2005
September 1, 2005
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6. Business Models
RSS link-throughs
with access rights
to full text content
Snapshot -
August 3, 2005
August 18, 2005
September 1, 2005
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Business Models
Possible Business Concerns …
! Passing fad
! Free service to customers that costs companies money
! General lack of understanding of emerging technology
! Loss of personal data (about customers)
! Lack of OR difficulty in collecting information on how
users are using content
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Future Business Models
Future for RSS with SAGE …
" Deployment on more titles
" Keyword, taxonomy, and/or citation RSS feeds
" Corporate website deployment
" SAGE breaking news
" New products
" Jobs at SAGE
" Internal communications
" HR policy changes
" Department news
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7. Future Business Models
Premium Business Models …
" Ad placement in feeds
" Partner with Amazon’s affiliate partner program
" Premium subscriptions
" User defined premium data
" Based on keywords and taxonomies working in
unison with rich content
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Future Business Models
Future …
! ATOM – more robust, rich format
! More customized interface
! Simplify and integrate process for technophobes
! Integration with search engines, advertisers – user-defined
content and advertisements
! Complete RSS acceptance by corporation and users
! RSS SPAM and Viruses .....
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Resources and Links
Content syndication --
http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=4446&Query=RSS
Premium content vendors take desktop challenge -- http://econtentmag.com/?ArticleID=7855
Tapping the feed: in search of an RSS money trail -- http://econtentmag.com/?ArticleID=7734
Can RSS relieve information overload? --http://econtentmag.com/?ArticleID=6188
Success story: RSS moves into the mainstream at the University of Alberta libraries --
http://elsevier.com/wps/find/librariansinfo.librarians/lc030208
What is RSS? -- http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/2002/12/18/dive-into-xml.html
RSS file format -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(protocol)
RSS history (Dave Winer) -- http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssVersionHistory
WebReference articles -- http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss
List of news aggregators -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_news_aggregators
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